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Many agencies have reduced the time it takes to hire a new employee. DoD, Energy and VA are among the departments that have made the most progress over the last year. OPM Director John Berry said a full government-wide look will not be available until early 2011.

It was interesting to read this article, as it brought a sense of deja vu. Six or seven years back, OPM conducted a series of "Recruitment Makeovers," which involved sending in OPM teams to work with selected agencies experiencing dismal staffing timeliness averages (including HUD). The purpose was to collaborate with agency HR staff to identify roadblocks, cut down on procedural steps, train managers, etc. At the end of such interventions, congratualory press releases and accomplishment awards abounded, and "mission accomplished" messages were broadcast to all and sundry. If all this seems to echo what's described in the article, that's because it does. Apparently, the earlier exercise was yet another example of the eternal bureaucratic tendency to overstate success in such initiatives. It is to be hoped that this time around things have really improved for the better - or will we be reading of another such well-publicized effort in 2016 or 2017? Stay tuned.